Doll
by State of Matter
Summary: Dick is out of costume when the city is attacked.


Doll

Dick is out of costume when the city is attacked.

Disclaimer: Their not mine and I'm not making any money or anything.

I used Jump City from the cartoon Teen Titans hope you don't mind. Anyways enjoy!

* * *

Slowly he back into the hard crumbling brick wall behind him. His spine dug into the hard stones and he rocked his head back into it with a painful thump. He could feel the pain explode in his skull but it seemed to immediately dull. 

Closing his eyes he tried to focus on only his breathing through the thick gray dust that permeated the air. It rushed into his mouth coating his throat and twirling around in his lungs forcing him to try in vain to cough it back up.

Even though his lungs burned and the bitter metallic taste of the dust filled his mouth he refused to breath through his nose. He couldn't bare the smell of everything. The smell of gas, sewage, blood, burning wood, burning flesh it was all too much.

Numb he slid down the bricks not noticing as they tore through his ripped shirt and clawed at his pale skin. He sat hard on the ground and tried to drown out the noises; crackling of fires, distant explosions and sirens, screams.

It was the screams that tore at his soul, ripping it to shreds. Humans should never make those sounds. They should never hurt this much.

He pulled his hands to his face and placed them over his ears trying to block the noise. It still found a way through his bloody hands and into his mind.

He gave a hoarse cry and pressed his palms into his eyes. He pressed as if the presser would push everything away. The warm sticky blood on his hands against his unmasked lids forced his mind into overdrive.

* * *

Unmasked. 

He had gone out into Jump City as Richard Grayson. Bruce Wayne, his surrogate father, had asked him to stop by Wayne Enterprise's Technology facility in Jump and pick up some security tapes concerning a resent break in.

Up until then the tapes had been locked away as evidence to the case but now the criminal had been arrested and sentenced, the tapes released. Dick assumed that Bruce wanted them in the main facility in Gotham for reference and to go over a better security plan.

Getting the tapes was simple. Bruce had made sure to have Richard drop in often enough for the employees to recognize the billionaire's ward.

Once he had the tapes Dick made the two hour drive to Gotham. It really didn't make since to him why he couldn't simply mail them in a package but Bruce will be Bruce.

It didn't take long to drop the tapes of at the large office building and was mainly uneventful considering Bruce was out to lunch with a potential client. So Dick didn't have to worry about that tense conversation and he simply made the rounds around the front offices saying hi and being polite.

Everyone was shocked to see the now eighteen year old walk with confidence replacing the cute witty nine year old they all came to love.

After his brief encounter there Dick made his way back towards Jump City. The drive really wasn't that long and he made it in the outer city limits by early evening.

As he navigated into the center of town he knew something was wrong. Well he didn't know, it was more of a gut feeling and with years of crime fighting under his belt he knew to listen to his gut.

Slowly he pulled his motorcycle to the side of the street and took off his helmet simply taking things in.

The clouds have blown in over the city sending a bright gray film over everything. He froze and closed his eyes listening to the harsh noise of city life for something out of place.

The noise came as the ear splitting sound of an explosion ripping a steel and glass building to pieces. It was right down the street from where he stood. The shrapnel began to rain down on the street. Dick jumped off his bike and began to try to get people to safety. Dust kicked up in the air as large chunks of the top half of the building crashed to the ground.

Coughing and blind Dick rushed onto the sidewalk. Drivers were panicking and the scream of bending metal alerted the drivers of their mistakes to late.

Dick noticed a small boy curled in a ball cradling a doll of some sort against his chest. Rushing to the boy Dick swept him off the ground and pulled him tight to against him. The boy in his arms shifted a bit and crushed the doll against his chest as if it might answer all his problems.

Dick stumbled down the sidewalk a bit before freezing, another explosion sounded down the street in the other direction trapping Dick in the middle. He froze holding the boy close. In his arms the child shuttered with fear and asked in a small innocent voice, "What's happening?"

Dick looked into the questioning chocolate eyes with wonder. The boy didn't asked where his parents were, or scream at being in a stranger's arms, and he wasn't even crying.

Tears pored down Dick's cheeks as pain tore at his heart. The being in his arms was just a baby so innocent and trusting. Dick crushed the boy against him answering in a voice that was very much like the boy's, "I don't know."

The pain in Dick's chest increased tenfold. This baby was trusting him, a child in his own right, to save him.

It's not like Dick never has had this pressure before. He had it all the time under the guise of Robin. It was just for the first time the pressure fell into his hands when he wasn't the timeless hero but the just turned adult Richard Grayson.

Dick swallowed hard and shook his head to clear it. Now was not the time for fear and panic. He needed to get control.

The dust was clearing around him showing the horrors of what falling steel and glass could do. Dick tucked the boy's head against his shoulder and told him to close his eyes.

Wearily he made his way down the street all too aware of the explosions continuing in the distance and the smell of burning fires.

There was a scream to his left and the shrill call of a lady, "My baby! Oh my god he's safe! My baby!"

Dick turned to the call and eyed a middle aged woman rushing towards him tears clearing dirty tracks down her face. The child in his arms perked his head up and locked eyes with the woman. His face broke out in a happy empty smile that only could come for a child in the middle of all this destruction.

Dick gently hand the child over to his mother and politely accepted the thanks she showered over him. Dick stood frozen as the two of them made their way down the street trying to escape the horrors.

Then all of the sudden Dick's heart stopped. It was like someone had turned the world on slow motion. Dick could only stand a watch as the mother and child passed a building that within seconds blew out and swallowed them in heavy bricks and glass.

Dick screamed his throat tearing with the effort and tears spilled down his face. He spirited to the site blindly stumbling through the dust. He fell to his knees scraping a layer of skin off as he strained to see the ground.

After less them a minute of fumbling he came face to face with the innocent child he had just minutes ago cradled in his arms. Blood ran over the boys pale skin and out his small mouth that had minutes ago been smiling.

Dick grabbed the boy's tiny hand and held it in his larger one cursing every god he could think of. It was wrong for a boy this young to die in such a way before he even got to taste the world.

As the dust settled a bit Dick got his first look at the doll the boy had been holding. Covered in a thin layer of gray dust and a bit of the boy's crimson blood was a small stuffed Batman doll.

Dick lifted the doll in his hands and cleared the dust from the bright yellow bat sign in the center. Dick couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it. Though the laugh was painful to hear and was anything but a natural noise.

Dick stood up and slowly backed into the brick wall behind him.

* * *

Dick pulled his hands away from his face and kept his eyes closed. He didn't want to open them and be forced to face the facts of what was happening. 

He wasn't sure how long he sat there until he felt it. It was a small tremble through the earth and it seemed to be traveling to slow. Time had seemed to slow again and he could feel the small shock wave that came just before the explosion.

However even though he knew what was coming he was bound in time and had no way of moving before the wall behind him burst outward throwing him across the street as an angry child might throw down a doll.

Dick crashed back to earth with bone cracking pressure and although he could feel metal pierce his flesh and sink deep in his body and he could feel his bones crack under the bricks, he felt no pain.

The last thing that Dick's bright blue eyes ever saw was the blood and dust covered Batman doll the small child had cradled to his chest with such intensity minutes earlier.

The last thought that ran through Dick head was know only to him though it was about Bruce.

* * *

In the center of Gotham in a nice restaurant chatting with his client Bruce Wayne caught a glimpse of the television in the bar area. His heart seemed to sink as his instincts told his something terrible was happening. 

He quietly excused himself and got up to go get a good look at the TV. The Breaking News bulletin made his heart pick up pace, his fingers grip the wooden bar until his knuckles turned white and three words were all he needed to see to know that his worst fears were coming true.

Jump City Attacked.

Usually that would simply make him worry not dread but for some reason he knew, be it parental instincts or just the bond they had, he knew that his son was dead.

* * *

Please let me know what you think. 


End file.
